Blake rides his bike with NO training wheels!

So while I was at a birthday party with Grant today, Blake decided he wanted to ride his bike without his training wheels. He's been asking for awhile now, but I didn't really think he WANTED to do it. So after bugging daddy a few times today, he finally decided to do it - check out the short video clips below! WAY TO GO BLAKE!!!

Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge 2009

It's been a beautiful and awesome vacation the past 8 days. As I sit here looking out at the view from our cabin's living room - I'm eternally grateful and in awe of God's goodness. I really don't want to leave here tomorrow, but I guess back to reality we must go...

We look forward to many more vacations with our best friends (the Cassidy's) and their girls - another life long friendship totally orchestrated and built by God! We love you guys!!!

The majestic mountain view from our cabin - yep, this is the one I'm looking at right now!

We have 2 hot tubs here at the cabin, this one was deemed the "kiddie pool" - they loved it!

Just like last year, the kids were dying to go to the Nascar Speedpark. Not sure who had more fun - the kids, or Shawn and Kevin!!!

Me and my BFF Linda in our matching Tommy Hilfiger sweatshirts!

A few days after arriving (and after having 70+ degree weather, it snowed for 2 days. I'm actually glad it did, because it was beautiful!!! The hot tub was awesome during this time too! Here are a few view shots from the cabin after the snow had fallen.

Another cool snow shot.

The kids in downtown Gatlinburg.

Our cabin is situated on a cul-de-sac, which is GREAT for the kids to play. They ran around endlessly, played with bubbles and loved playing with the landscaping rocks right in front of our cabin.

The front of our cabin provided a great photo spot - this one is of Grant and Blake.

Here's one of all the kids (minus Megan, who was taking a nap).

We went on a hike to Laural Falls in the Great Smokey Mountain Nat'l Park, and on the 1.3 mile trek, we ran across this sign - pretty funny if you saw our Christmas card from a few years ago!

Also along the hike, there were cool picture opportunities like this one.

At the end of the trail, there was this beautiful waterfall, so we had to get a family shot of it.

We have a cool firepit area by our cabin too - so one night after the kids went to bed, it was cigars for the boys and some yummy drinks for us girls!

The 4 BFF's! Thank goodness we figured out how to use the timer on our camera!

Shawn and I by the fire.

Exterior House Painting

So we bit the bullet and paid the big bucks to finally get the trim, gutters, moldings and garage doors painted. We decided to go darker to try and set the house apart from the others on the street and I'm pretty pleased with the color we chose. See if you agree...

The before shot (actually taken when we moved into the house back in 2000)
The after shot, taken today.